Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State women's basketball team held off Savannah State late in the second half and picked up its first MEAC win of the season with a 54-49 victory over the Tigers Saturday afternoon at Joseph Echols Hall.

The Spartans had at least a four-point lead throughout the entire second half before Savannah State cut it to two with less than three and a half minutes left in the game. NSU responded with a key run at the end to ice the win and improve to 5-2, 1-0 in league play. Savannah State fell to 4-3, 0-1.

NSU won the first MEAC game of the season for the first time since 2006-07, thanks to 11 points from senior Whitney Long and 10 each from junior Recca Trice and sophomore Rae Corbo. The Spartans forced 21 Tiger turnovers and held them to a 15-of-56 effort from the field (26.8 percent).

NSU, though, did not fare a whole lot better from the field, hitting just 37.5 percent for the game (21-of-56), including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc. Savannah State hit just 3-of-17 from long range.

Sophomore Rachel Gordon stuffed the stat sheet for NSU with nine points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, three assists and two steals. Trice had a game-high five assists, and junior Marian Brooks chipped in with eight points.

Ezinne Kalu finished with a game-high 20 points for the Tigers, while Jasmine Kirkland joined her in double figures with 11. Alisha Nelson had a game-high 13 rebounds with three assists and three steals.

Savannah State held the rebounding edge, 45-40, and was successful on 16-of-19 attempts from the charity stripe. NSU struggled mightily, hitting just 9-of-20 from the foul line

Trice got NSU on the board first with a trey from the left corner, but the Tigers made the game's next eight points for an 8-3 advantage a little more than six minutes into the game. Not until the 11:55 mark did NSU convert another basket, a running jumper in the paint by freshman Ebony Brown to make it 13-7 Tigers.

The Spartans went scoreless from the floor for the next four minutes before Brooks found Gordon underneath at 7:56 for a 13-10 Savannah State lead. NSU had missed 13 of its first 15 shots prior to that layup. Trice put the Spartans back on top, 14-13, first by finding Brooks down low and then taking a pass from Brooks at halfcourt and going in for the fastbreak bunny.

Gordon's traditional 3-point play off an inbounds pass at 3:10 put NSU up by a 17-13 score, and Trice hit one from just inside the 3-point line for a 21-17 lead with 1:18 left in the half. That score held up at the break, as NSU held the Tigers to just 17.4 percent shooting in the first stanza.

The offenses got going in the second half, as junior Batavia Owens scored the first points of the second stanza on NSU's first possession, and Long's trey made it 26-19 at the 19:03 mark. A short time later, NSU extended the lead to 32-23 following quick back-to-back buckets by Corbo and Long in between a Savannah State turnover.

Later, with the Spartans up 36-29 after a nice bounce pass from Trice to Corbo on a quick bucket, Brooks sank two straight baskets down low within 40 seconds for a 40-33 lead with 9:56 left. The two squads went cold from there over the next few minutes before Savannah State cut the deficit down to four, 43-39, on a Kalu bucket with 4:55 left.

The Tigers cut it to two, 43-41, to complete a 7-0 run before a late 8-1 run by the Spartans iced the game. Long's key 3-pointer from the top of the arc got it started and made it 46-41 with 2:59 on the clock. Corbo drove past a couple of defenders for a 48-42 edge, and Long picked up a loose ball in the paint and made the jumper to stretch the advantage to eight, 50-42 at the 1:42 mark. The Tigers got no closer than five the rest of the way, when Kalu sank a trey at the buzzer for the final 54-49 score.

NSU will welcome South Carolina State to Echols Hall on Monday at 6 p.m.